Lakers Kobe Bryant finds a hole in the Orlando defense and goes up for a basket Sunday night. PAUL RODRIGUEZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Trevor Ariza tried to explain the other day, and he wound up stopping mid-sentence to convey what he was truly feeling.

"I used it like it was ..." he began.

Then he tilted his head back, turned his palms up and stretched those noodle arms out to his sides.

And he looked to the heavens.

"I used it like it was the Bible," Ariza said.

What we were talking about was the shooting-practice program given to Ariza entering the summer before this season by one Kobe Bryant.

The meaning of the gesture to Ariza -- and its net effect in transforming his jump shot and thus this Lakers championship team -- makes it the quintessence of the latter-day Bryant as a teammate.

He is a champion again, but he is an altogether different champion.

"He has become a giver rather than just a guy who is a demanding leader," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said upon the Lakers winning the NBA championship Sunday night. "And that's been great for him and great to watch."

We follow sports, but sports are really about people -- their success and failure, hopefully their growth. Win or lose, Bryant has always been the same in one regard: driven to the point of drama. At 30, he has grown glacially in other ways of life, however.

Through stinging defeat, years of contemplation and a head-high stack of leadership books given him by Jackson, Bryant has made a quantum leap.

He used to wonder why he should pass the ball to a teammate who hasn't practiced as much and isn't as skilled. Now he knows that he can guide that teammate to sharper practice and upgraded skills.

It's simplistic to say this is about trusting teammates. What must happen is ensuring your teammates are trustworthy.

It's a quality Jackson sought to draw out of Bryant before he was ready. Jackson failed to get Bryant to teach Isaiah Rider the nuances of the triangle offense. Jackson couldn't sway Bryant to gift a moment in the game for Devean George to find his rhythm instead of just looking to take over on his own.

"Phil is good at not only coaching X's and O's," Derek Fisher said, "but trying to make a guy be something that you want him to be."

So Jackson shocked his friends and family by returning to coach Bryant, who had begun to mentor Caron Butler and was ready for far more. Bryant yearned for growth, but three seasons with Lamar Odom as the inconsistent next-best Laker didn't produce a single playoff series victory.

Then last season, with Fisher back to help lead, Bryant's teammates started to show signs of improvement, especially young Andrew Bynum. Out of Bynum's hard work sprung renewed hope in Bryant, and then Mitch Kupchak came up with what he called Sunday night "a couple of lucky strokes" to land Ariza and Pau Gasol in trade.

It pushed Bryant forward even further in prioritizing his teammates' development. Sharing his personal shooting program with Ariza was akin to unlocking the vault.

"Getting that from him? Kind of cool, kind of cool," Ariza said. "Because before I got here, you always hear how he's this certain type of person. And when I got here, you realize he's not what everybody says he is.

"I just got in the gym every day and worked. I used what he told me, used some things that he gave me to do. And I just worked."

It worked. Ariza had made nine 3-pointers in his first four NBA seasons. This season, he made 61 as a prelude to his 47.6 percent playoff marksmanship that Bynum described with bugged-out eyes this way: "His shooting is ridiculousat this point."

Bryant made nine 3-pointers in the NBA Finals; Ariza made 10. Bryant made 37 3-pointers in the playoffs; Ariza made 40.

Twice in the second quarter Sunday night, Bryant drew defenders and kicked the ball over to Ariza, who stepped into perfect-form 3-pointers against the team that traded him. During that stretch that became a 16-0 run, the Lakers started settling on their summer smiles.

Asked about Orlando trading him to the Lakers, Ariza said: "I know they always knew that I could shoot the ball; that wasn't the issue. It was just the confidence."

Ariza is hardly the only Laker whose confidence swelled upon having the team's star and the sport's legend care enough to advise, not just chastise.

Bryant essentially taught Sasha Vujacic how to study scouting video, resulting in the gunning Vujacic evolving into a designated defensive stopper in the playoffs. Bryant would text-message Gasol at 3 a.m. with reminders about staying tough-minded, and Gasol came away from the season acknowledging that he was bursting with pride that he fought through this time.

Meanwhile, Bryant became obsessed with graduate-level Michael Jordan coursework: not dominating if it might disrupt the team's flow, definitely dominating if it's a tipping point where the team needs him.

Out of that came Bryant's 61-point inspiration at Madison Square Garden the game after Bynum's discouraging knee injury in Memphis. (Reggie Miller later called Bryant "a basketball genius" for that timing.) In the one scary series the Lakers had, Bryant delivered two blocks of Yao Ming in a three-minute span on Houston's court to alter the entire course of the Lakers' postseason run. Bryant's willingness in Game 4 to pass out of Orlando's double-teams - leading to Fisher's 3-point heroics - basically won the NBA Finals.

Those magic moments are framed art. Yet the clearest snapshots of this season are the little things ...

• Bryant is leaning back in his chair on the bench in Cleveland a few more days beyond Bynum's injury, craning his neck to keep Bynum involved and engaged with specific advice about what Bynum could learn from a particular alignment that just played out on the court.

• Bryant seems sure to fire away in Oklahoma City after Kevin Durant stops him on the previous possession, yet then idles down and instead waves Luke Walton into the post so Walton can use his extra three inches and 35 pounds against Kyle Weaver. The result is Walton drawing help and passing for an uncontested Odom jam.

• Bryant stands and yells from the farthest corner of the court in Detroit when he was supposed to be resting on the Lakers' bench, trying to make sure Jordan Farmar knows while hounding Rodney Stuckey just inside the midcourt stripe that no pick is coming.

• Bryant discreetly sidles up to Jackson in the final seconds of a playoff victory in Houston, acknowledging he hasn't really been trying to get the ball while the Rockets have been fouling on purpose - wanting to give Ariza, Farmar and Gasol test runs with late-game free throws. "I can go get it," Bryant admits to Jackson.

• Bryant strides over to Fisher early in a Finals game in Orlando while the Magic is shooting foul shots to tell him it's time for him to get a shot, which he will wind up making. But Bryant also walks down to Gasol to make completely clear how Gasol's pick must be so Bryant can make his jump pass to Fisher: "Come all the way up to me," Bryant whispers to Gasol.

The last game Sunday night was just more of the same.

That Bryant snarl that attracted so much attention this series? Bryant showed it again in the Lakers' whirlwind second quarter - except it didn't come after he something he did. Bryant strutted up to Ariza with jaw jutting and brow furrowed because Ariza had stolen the ball and regenerated the Lakers' energy after a timeout.

As they walked off the court at halftime, Bryant and Gasol were talking - just as they always seem to be. It was Bryant talking about Gasol's turnover, Gasol nodding, and the conversation ending. Before they could even take five more steps, Gasol was running up again behind Bryant and starting a new chat about some other strategy. That conversation ended with Bryant nodding and saying: "I got you."

Bryant won his first NBA MVP trophy last season by helping build a contending team, though ultimately it got no better than Bryant holding aloft that rust-colored trophy of one man alone with a basketball.

On Sunday night, Bryant was holding aloft the Larry O'Brien NBA Championship Trophy, a communal prize for everyone to pass around. Sixteen pounds of sterling silver, a 24-carat gold shine all around, and a team ball on top.

Bryant didn't really try to get another MVP award this season. What he tried to do - and did do - was make all his teammates more valuable players.

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